Manawatu Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 21st MAY. 1875.] MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1922. RAILWAY ECONOMY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2147, 12 June 1922, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 21st MAY. 1875.] MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1922. RAILWAY ECONOMY.

The demand for railway improvement in New Zealand has, so far, produced no tangible results. The Prime Minister and Minister of Railways have been promising important changes, but beyond the setting up of a board of oflicials to consult each other, and to take advice from business men, nothing has been done. The railways are still being run at an enormous loss to the Dominion. In Australia they appear to be doing things differently. The Melbourne “Argus” reports that the Victorian Railways Commissioners have for over a year conducted a system of co-opera-tion between freight customers and the staff to make the best possible use of existing roiling stock, eliminate unnecessary construction, and to reduce operative costs. The commissioners congratulate the employees on the saving in mileage and reduction in costs caused ’by their united efforts to increase the loading of goods trains. The figures, which are for the twelve months ended April 30, show an improvement in the load per mile of goods trains for Victoria from 329 tons in January and February to 331 tons in April, the latter tonnage being the largest since February, 1920. Every goods train which ran during April averaged two tons greater load over every mile of journey, representing an appreciable economy. The response to the commissioners’ appeal to freight customers of the department has resulted to date in an increase in the average truckload of from eight to nine and a half tons (rising in one period of two months to nine and three-quarter tons), and an increase in the daily truck journey of from 24 miles to 27 miles (reaching 272 miles during two months). This increased loading and Improved mileage enabled better use to be made of existing rolling stock. During the period of greatest demand these advances made available, without extra expenditure, the equivalent of about 2750 trucks. Time would not have permitted the building of these trucks in any case, and the cost of construction, at £4OO each, would have amounted to £1,100,000. The commissioners claim that this remarkable result is a “triumph of cooperative effort.”